Objective: To examine the association between accidental, violent and
alcohol related adult mortality in the Russian capital and socio-econo
mic status characteristics such as educational status, occupational gr
oup and marital status. Data and methods: individual death records for
Moscow City for the years 1994 and 1995, for 86121 deaths between the
ages of 20-59. Proportional mortality analysis was used to compare tr
ends for alcohol related deaths and accidental and violent deaths (rep
resenting 5 and 28% of all deaths in this age group), with multiple co
ntrols consisting of deaths from cancer at various sites. Results: The
probability of death from alcohol related diseases increased as educa
tion level decreased, with those men failing to complete secondary edu
cation over two and a half times as likely to die from these causes th
an men with higher education. Blue collar workers were also much more
likely to die from these causes than white collar workers. Marriage ha
d a marked protective effect for both men and women. Conclusion: Despi
te 75 years of official egalitarian ideology, there are marked socio-e
conomic differentials in mortality in Russia. For the causes of death
analysed, socio-economic mortality differentials were greater for wome
n than for men.